


Alternative American Wizard Schools: Saniwa Institute of Dracobiology

by darkmagess



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arapaho, Colorado, Native American, american wizard schools, draconology, wizard schools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 18:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7372066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkmagess/pseuds/darkmagess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first of a proposed alternative set of American wizard schools. The American system, unlike the British system, is collegiate, meaning that students attend public school until junior high, when they switch to magic magnet schools. Prior to this, they have magic kindergarten classes and summer schools to ensure they don't hurt anyone. From the magnet schools, they attend colleges. SID is in the Ivy League of wizard colleges, comparable it esteem to MIT.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alternative American Wizard Schools: Saniwa Institute of Dracobiology

# 

# Saniwa Institute of Dracobiology, Mount Evans, Colorado

  * Different curriculum style than any other university, very selective
  * Very inter-disciplinary with Arapaho and other First Nation magics hybridized with wand magic
  * Specialties in Native Medicine Magic are available to all students, but require a Native mentor. Students may receive a traditional name in addition to their diploma at graduation, as seen fit by their mentor.
  * Departments are run by seven men and seven women
  * The Institute has a medicine man or woman on staff, currently a Cheyenne woman, who is also responsible for wand crafting
  * Students are encouraged and sometimes required to get a new wand from the school wandmaker to support the blended methods used at the school
  * Colors: Navy Blue ([Pantone 300](https://www.pantone.com/color-finder/300-U)) and White



 

Students are assigned a mentor upon their arrival to see through their specific learning course until they graduate. There are no hall lectures or standardized tests to evaluate advancement. Whenever possible, learning is done through hands-on demonstration and modeling, with memorization a secondary goal.

## History

Calum MacAlistair (Slytherin) and Lachlann Pollock (Hufflepuff), Scottish immigrants and graduates from Hogwart’s, came to the New World to search for new dragon species and nesting grounds. Lachlann was particularly interested in the potion possibilities, with new components from the new species, while Calum’s focus was in documenting new creatures and habits and possibly taming a species for travel. It was early in the western expansion, while settlers were moving out by wagon train. They traveled by port key to Independence, Missouri, before having to hire a wagon and travel like everyone else. Most intriguing were stories of a mountain range to rival the Alps, for surely that would make the perfect home for any burrowing dragon species.

Wagon laden with research equipment, not nearly enough food, and insufficiently warm clothes, they break from the wagon train and start off on their own so they can perform magic tracking spells away from muggle eyes.

They encounter an Arapaho tribe after nearly freezing to death and ask through drawings and gestures if they’ve seen any dragons. The tribe points them toward a peak with a simple “saniwa,” direction. They take this to be the name of the peak. But they cannot go on the meager resources they have. They are able to barter for a guide and some assistance in the climb. Lachlann must go off to travel back to the nearest town to get what the Arapaho request of them. He does this through magical means, and so Calum must stay for a while in the tribe’s camp waiting for his return.

Once they are in the mountains, they find some abandoned dragon tunnels, much to the wizards’ delight. They make camp and are attacked during the night. Their guide, Chetan, unleashes a fire spell to drive it off, and seeing the magic, the Scotsmen follow. This is how they discover that they all have magic ability. They start to show one another small tricks, and the rest of the party members are fascinated, both that the white people have magic and that Chetan is showing them his medicine.

They part on amicable terms. Chetan must see the rest of the group back to safety but will return to share more magic. This is the start of a cultural exchange at what Calum names the Saniwa Lab. Over time, they invite more researchers from Britain and the continent to join them, and construction begins on an aboveground facility. Chetan brings more magic users from his tribe to learn the white magic ways, and they start building formal classes into their days.

Lachlann has some training as a wand maker, and they venture out to craft new wands for the Arapaho to use. Chetan can identify powerful trees and creatures from the area to gather materials from, including, of course, the dragons. Lachlann’s wands work well enough, but they quickly discover that the Arapaho medicine man is the most adept. As it is his right and power to choose the traditional name for a tribe member, so does he have the sensitivity to craft for an individual a true wand. Once they learn the craft, this becomes part of the tradition passed down to future medicine men and women.

The researchers beg to bring their kids to learn the new magic of this land, and the Saniwa Lab becomes the Saniwa School.

One day, Lachlann is injured in a potion explosion, and Calum brings him down to the tribe for help. They have better healers, but Lachlann dies and Calum is beside himself. One of the tribeswomen volunteers to return to the lab with Calum so he won’t be alone. He tries to refuse, but she insists. The tribe mourns on his behalf and travel to the school to check on Calum more often, bringing the communities closer still.

When the raids on Indian tribes begins in earnest in 1858, Chetan asks Calum to keep the Arapaho students safe at the school. At first it’s just them, but they eventually bring the whole tribe up and seal it off with a cloak to hide them. The school becomes a small village, and the school campus expands. The work they’ve been doing on dragons gets great review in the magic community of America and Europe, and more wizards wish to come and work. They expand the research into desert species. The wizards bring their families as well, and the town gets on quite well. Settlers in the area with wizard blood need a place to have their children educated, so even though it wasn’t the original intention, they now send their children to Saniwa once they have completed a basic education in the public schools. The settler population consists of European and hispano families, bringing a mixture of English, Spanish, Algonquin-based native languages, and German. Continental magic is still done largely in English-root and Latin-root words, although the Spanish-speakers tend toward all Latin-root words, while Native Medicine must be done in an Algonquin tongue.

Once the raids against the Indians have stopped and the reservations have been setup, the muggle members of the tribe start to return to the land, before they forget what it was to live there. The Arapaho were a mobile tribe, following the buffalo herds, and found it difficult to remain rooted. The magical ones are welcome to stay, if they wish.

The school develops into the Saniwa Institute of Draconology. And over time, magnet schools for wizardry are setup to accept the younger students, leaving the high level collegiate research and schooling to occur at Saniwa. The buildings that used to be used for the town are converted into classrooms, dorms, and more labs. Space is still limited, so they must institute an acceptance test and start being picky about which students they accept.

In the 19th century, it becomes the Saniwa Institute of Dracobiology, an accredited institution of higher learning and the most exclusive magical university in America. Lachlann grant students come with the highest credentials and excellent placement in apparition and travel, as well as draconology. MacAlistair grants are offered to Native American students as full-ride scholarships. All students are expected to remain enrolled in school throughout their seven-year stay, not returning him until they have completed their studies or dropped out.

The hybridized form of magic invented at SID was first performed by one of Calum and Chetan’s Arapaho students, and it remains the only institution to formally teach this blended method.

Red Hawk Hall houses the administration and dining area. The MacAlistair Building has large pens for animals under study and especially thick stone walls to prevent escapes. It is set apart from the rest of the structures and requires a hike up steps carved into the rock to reach. Black Coal House, the dormitory, was named after the last chief of the Northern Arapaho elected by the old traditions. And, in honor of his name, the building is sheeted in black stone (though not coal for safety reasons). Tall Grass Greenhouse is a wonder of modern wizardry. The mountain climate being otherwise unsuitable for growing plants, a greenhouse needed to be built both to grow potion ingredients and food. It sparkles like a crystal on the mountainside at dawn.

The walkways throughout the campus are laid tile, in patterns arranged by the tribe during the time of their exile. It looks much like beadwork, only on a larger scale. The patterns converge on a fountain in the middle of campus, a magic well-spring of fresh water whose actual source lay some distance away in the plains. The water regulates its own temperature based on the weather and will steam on terribly cold days.

Physical entry to the campus is achieved, in modern times, via portkey to the Dragon Gate or by griffin. Dragons, after much effort and trial, proved impossible to tame well enough to use as proper transport. At best, they would deliver their charges when and where they felt like it.


End file.
